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Building KiCad from Source

If you are a user and not a developer, please consider using one of the prebuilt packages of KiCad which can be found at the download page on the KiCad website. Building KiCad from source is not for the faint of heart and is not recommended unless you have reasonable software development experience. This document contains the instructions on how to build KiCad from source on the supported platforms. It is not intended as a guide for installing or building library dependencies. Please consult you platforms documentation for installing packages or the source code when building the library dependencies. Currently the supported platforms are Windows Versions 7-10, just about any version of Linux, and OSX 10.7-10.10. You may be able to build KiCad on other platforms but it is not supported. On Windows and Linux the GNU GCC is the only supported compiler and on OSX Clang is the only supported compiler.

[TOC]

Development Tools

Before you begin building KiCad, there are a few tools required in addition to your compiler. Some of these tools are required to build from source and some are optional.

CMake Build Configuration Tool

CMake is the build configuration and makefile generation tool used by KiCad. It is required.

Bazaar Version Control System

The official source code repository is hosted on Launchpad and requires the Bazaar version control system in order to create a branch of the latest source. Bazaar is not required if you are going to build a stable version of KiCad from a source archive.

GIT Version Control System

If you prefer to use GIT for version control, there is a mirror of the official KiCad repository on Github. GIT is not required if you are going to build a stable version of KiCad from a source archive. Please note that the Github mirror is read only. Do not submit pull requests to Github. Changes should be sent to the KiCad developer's mailing list as an attached patch with [PATCH] at the beginning of the subject.

Doxygen Code Documentation Generator

The KiCad source code is documented using Doxygen which parses the KiCad source code files and builds a dependency tree along with the source documentation into HTML. Doxygen is only required if you are going to build the KiCad documentation.

SWIG Simplified Wrapper and Interface Generator

SWIG is used to generate the Python scripting language extensions for KiCad. SWIG is not required if you are not going to build the KiCad scripting extension.

Library Dependencies

This section includes a list of library dependencies required to build KiCad. It does not include any dependencies of the libraries. Please consult the library's documentation for any additional dependencies. Some of these libraries are optional depending on you build configuration. This is not a guide on how to install the library dependencies using you systems package management tools or how to build the library from source. Consult the appropriate documentation to perform these tasks.

wxWidgets Cross Platform GUI Library##

wxWidgets is the graphical user interface (GUI) library used by KiCad. The current minimum version is 3.0.0. However, 3.0.2 should be used whenever possible as there are some known bugs in prior versions that can cause problems on some platforms. Please note that there are also some platform specific patches that must be applied before building wxWidgets from source. These patches can be found in the patches folder in the KiCad source. These patches are named by the wxWidgets version and platform name they should be applied against. wxWidgets must be built with the --with-opengl option. If you installed the packaged version of wxWidgets on your system, verify that it was built with this option.

Boost C++ Libraries

The Boost C++ library is required only if you intend to build KiCad with the system installed version of Boost instead of the default internally built version. If you use the system installed version of Boost, version 1.56 or greater is required. Please note there are some platform specific patches required to build a working Boost library. These patches can be found in the patches folder in the KiCad source. These patches are named by the platform name they should be applied against.

OpenSSL Secure Socket Layer Library

The OpenSSL library is only required when the KiCad build is configured with the Github plugin enabled. See the KiCad Build Configuration Options` section for more information. Please note that KiCad will download and build version 1.0.1e of OpenSSL by default. You should probably use the version of OpenSSL installed on your system as it will most likely be more up to date and contain the latest security fixes.

GLEW OpenGL Extension Wrangler Library

The OpenGL Extension Wrangler is an OpenGL helper library used by the KiCad graphics abstraction library [GAL] and is always required to build KiCad.

GLUT OpenGL Utility Toolkit Library

The OpenGL Utility Toolkit is an OpenGL helper library used by the KiCad graphics abstraction library [GAL] and is always required to build KiCad.

Cairo 2D Graphics Library

The Cairo 2D graphics library is used as a fallback rendering canvas when OpenGL is no available and is always required to build KiCad.

Python Programming Language

The Python programming language is used to provide scripting support to KiCad. It only needs to be install if the KiCad scripting build configuration option is enabled.

wxPython Library

The wxPython library is used to provide a scripting console for Pcbnew. It only needs to be installed if the wxPython scripting build configuration option is enabled. When building KiCad with wxPython support, make sure the version of the wxWidgets library and the version of wxPython installed on your system are the same. Mismatched versions have been known to cause runtime issues.

KiCad Build Configuration Options

KiCad has many build options that can be configured to build different options depending on the availability of support for each option on a given platform. This section documents these options and their default values.

Case Sensitivity

The KICAD_KEEPCASE option allows you to build KiCad so that the string matching for component names is case sensitive of case insensitive. This option is enabled by default.

Advanced Graphics Context

The USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT option replaces wxDC with wxGraphicsContext for graphics rendering. This option is disabled by default. Warning: the is experimental and has not been maintained so use at your own risk.

Graphics Context Overlay

The USE_WX_OVERLAY option is used to enable the optional wxOverlay class for graphics rendering on OSX. This is enabled on OSX by default and disabled on all other platforms.

Scripting Support

The KICAD_SCRIPTING option is used to enable building the Python scripting support into Pcbnew. This options is disabled by default.

Scripting Module Support

The KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES option is used to enable building and installing the Python modules supplied by KiCad. This option is disabled by default.

wxPython Scripting Support

The KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON option is used to enable building the wxPython interface into Pcbnew including the wxPython console. This option is disabled by default.

Build with Static Libraries

The KICAD_BUILD_STATIC option is used to build KiCad with static libraries. This option is used for OSX builds only and is disabled by default.

Build with Dynamic Libraries

The KICAD_BUILD_DYNAMIC option is used to build KiCad with dynamic libraries. This option is used for OSX only and is disabled by default.

Build with System Boost

The KICAD_SKIP_BOOST option allow you to use the Boost libraries installed on your system to be used instead of downloading Boost 1.54 and building a custom version specifically for building KiCad. It is high recommended that you enable this option on Linux and use Boost version 1.56 or greater. On other platforms you mileage may vary. This option is disabled by default.

OSX Dependency Builder

The USE_OSX_DEPS_BUILDER option forces the build configuration to download and build the required dependencies to build KiCad on OSX. This option is not longer maintained and most likely is broken. Use it at your own peril.

Github Plugin

The BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN option is used to control if the Github plugin is built. This option is enabled by default.

Getting the KiCad Source Code

There are several ways to get the KiCad source. If you want to build the stable version you can down load the source archive from the KiCad Launchpad developers page. Use tar or some other archive program to extract the source on your system. If you are using tar, use the following command:

tar -xzf kicad_src_archive.tar.gz

If you are contributing directly to the KiCad project on Launchpad, you can create a local branch on your machine by using the following command:

bzr branch lp:repo_to_branch

If you prefer to use GIT as you version control system, you can clone the KiCad mirror on Github using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-source-mirror

Here is a list of source links:

Stable release archive: https://launchpad.net/kicad/4.0/4.0.0-rc1/+download/kicad-4.0.0-rc1.tar.xz

Development branch: https://code.launchpad.net/~kicad-product-committers/kicad/product

Github mirror: https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-source-mirror

Building KiCad on Linux

To perform a full build on Linux, run the following commands:

cd kicad_source_tree
mkdir -p build/release
mkdir build/debug               # Optional for debug build.
cd build/release
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
      -DKICAD_SCRIPTING=ON \
      -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON \
      -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON \
      ../../
make
sudo make install

If the CMake configuration fails, determine the missing dependencies and install them on your system. By default, CMake sets the install path on Linux to /usr/local. Use the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX option to specify a different install path.

Building KiCad on Windows

The preferred Windows build environment is MSYS2. The MinGW build environment is still supported but it is not recommended because the developer is responsible for building all of the dependencies from source which is a huge and frustrating undertaking. The MSYS2 project provides packages for all of the require dependencies to build KiCad. To setup the MSYS2 build environment, depending on your system download and run either the MSYS2 32-bit Installer or the MSYS2 64-bit Installer. After the installer is finished, update to the latest package versions by running the msys2_shell.bat file located in the MSYS2 install path and running the command pacman -Syu. If the msys2-runtime package is updated, close the shell and run msys2_shell.bat.

MSYS2 the Easy Way

The easiest way to build KiCad using the MSYS2 build environment is to use the KiCad PKGBUILD provided by the MSYS2 project to build package using the head of the KiCad development branch. To build the KiCad package, run the msys2_shell.bat file located in the MSYS2 install path and run the following commands:

pacman -S git
mkdir src
cd src
git clone https://github.com/Alexpux/MINGW-packages
cd MinGW-packages/mingw-w64-kicad-git
makepkg-mingw -is

This will download and install all of the build dependencies, clone the KiCad source mirror from Github, create both 32-bit and 64-bit KiCad packages depending on your MSYS setup, and install the newly built KiCad packages. Please note that this build process takes a very long time to build even on a fast system.

MSYS2 the Hard Way

If you do not want to create KiCad packages and prefer the traditional make && make install method of building KiCad, your task is significantly more involved. For 64 bit builds run the mingw64_shell.bat file located in the MSYS2 install path. At the command prompt run the the following commands:

pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-doxygen \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-python2 \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-pkg-config \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-swig \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-boost \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-cairo \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-glew \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-openssl \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-wxPython \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-wxWidgets
cd kicad-source
mkdir -p build/release
mkdir build/debug               # Optional for debug build.
cd build/release
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
      -G "MSYS Makefiles" \
      -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/mingw64 \
      -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw64 \
      -DDEFAULT_INSTALL_PATH=/mingw64 \
      -DOPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=/mingw64 \
      -DKICAD_SKIP_BOOST=ON \
      -DKICAD_SCRIPTING=ON \
      -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON \
      -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON \
      ../../
make install

Building KiCad on OSX

Building on OSX is challenging at best. It typically requires building dependency libraries that require patching in order to work correctly. For more information on the complexities of building KiCad on OSX, see the OSX bundle build scripts.

Download the wxPython source and build using the following commands:

cd path-to-wxwidgets-src
patch -p0 < path-to-kicad-src/patches/wxwidgets-3.0.0_macosx.patch
patch -p0 < path-to-kicad-src/wxwidgets-3.0.0_macosx_bug_15908.patch
patch -p0 < path-to-kicad-src/patches/wxwidgets-3.0.0_macosx_soname.patch
patch -p0 < path-to-kicad-src/patches/wxwidgets-3.0.2_macosx_yosemite.patch
patch -p0 < path-to-kicad-src/patches/wxwidgets-3.0.0_macosx_scrolledwindow.patch
mkdir build
cd build
export MAC_OS_X_VERSION_MIN_REQUIRED=10.7
../configure \
    --prefix=`pwd`/../wx-bin \
    --with-opengl \
    --enable-aui \
    --enable-utf8 \
    --enable-html \
    --enable-stl \
    --with-libjpeg=builtin \
    --with-libpng=builtin \
    --with-regex=builtin \
    --with-libtiff=builtin \
    --with-zlib=builtin \
    --with-expat=builtin \
    --without-liblzma \
    --with-macosx-version-min=10.7 \
    --enable-universal-binary=i386,x86_64 \
    CC=clang \
    CXX=clang++

Build KiCad using the following commands:

cd kicad-source
mkdir -p build/release
mkdir build/debug               # Optional for debug build.
cd build/release
cmake -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang \
      -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ \
      -DCMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.7 \
      -DwxWidgets_CONFIG_EXECUTABLE=path-to-wx-install/bin/wx-config \
      -DKICAD_SCRIPTING=ON \
      -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON \
      -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON \
      -DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE=path-to-python-exe/python \
      -DPYTHON_SITE_PACKAGE_PATH=wx/wx-bin/lib/python2.7/site-packages \
      -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../bin \
      -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
      ../../
make
make install

Known Issues

There are some known issues that are platform and/or dependencie specific. This section provides a list of the currently known issues when building KiCad.

Boost C++ Library Issues

As of version 5 of GNU GCC, using the default configuration of downloading, patching, and building of Boost 1.54 will cause the KiCad build to fail. Therefore a newer version of Boost must be used to build KiCad. If your system has Boost 1.56 or greater installed, you job is straight forward. Configure your KiCad build using -DKICAD_SKIP_BOOST=ON. If your system does not have Boost 1.56 or greater installed, you will have to download and build Boost from source. If you are building Boost on windows using MinGW you will have to apply the Boost patches in the KiCad source [patch folder][].

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